


last christmas i gave you my heart

by transtarboy



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Christmas fic, M/M, Miscommunication, Tumblr Prompt, based off of Last Christmas by Wham!, i guess technically a song fic but let's not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 16:25:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13104030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transtarboy/pseuds/transtarboy
Summary: will confesses to mike in a christmas card. mike never says anything about it.





	last christmas i gave you my heart

**_(Merry Christmas!) I wrapped it up and sent it  
With a note saying, “I love you, ” I meant it_ **

Will taped the last loose edge of the wrapping paper carefully, sealing it with a finality he felt in his bones. This was it. Once he sent this, his secret was out. 

Mike would know how he felt. 

He glanced at the card he’d written, full to the brim with calm, collected cursive writing; the opposite of how he’d felt while making it. It was all there. Every detail, every instance, the very moment he knew he was fucked entirely. Laid out for Mike’s eyes to see, eventually. He swallowed his fear and picked the card up, sliding it into its simple, white envelope. 

_To Mike, From Will,_ he addressed it, and then taped it to the gift. 

His heart pounded in his chest the entire drive to Mike’s house. He slid it into the Wheelers’ mailbox and then drove off as quickly as possible. 

* * *

  **One Year Later**

* * *

**_Last Christmas, I gave you my heart_ **

**_But the very next day you gave it away_ **

Will met Mike’s eyes across the room, and then quickly looked back down into his glass of eggnog. 

It had been exactly one year since Will confessed his feelings for Mike through his gift, and out of all the reactions he had expected, he never thought Mike would just… ignore it entirely. He thanked him for the special edition comic book, and for the drawing of his Paladin, but that was all. 

Even anger would have hurt less, if he was honest. 

To expose himself in such a vulnerable way, to put so much on the line, and then to have Mike just disregard it like it didn’t matter hurt more than anything ever had.

Shit, Mike was making his way towards him.

They had a weird year. Mike acted like nothing happened, and Will, despite his best attempts, felt himself withdrawing further and further into himself. Purposely isolating, avoiding group hangouts, avoiding doing anything that involved leaving his house, really. He couldn’t face Mike. He couldn’t understand how he just went on like nothing happened, laughing and joking and  _smiling_ at Will like he hadn’t stomped all over his feelings. 

He kept his eyes low as Mike stopped in front of him. 

By now, Mike had long since caught on to Will’s actions. Not on his own, of course, but after what Will guessed was a lot of long, hard talks with the rest of the party. They knew something happened, they just didn’t know what. Eleven kept an especially close eye on him all year, for whatever reasons they had. 

“Can I talk to you? Outside?” 

“I…” Will tried to come up with an excuse. He felt Mike’s exhale ruffle his hair slightly. 

“Please, Will.” 

**_Now, I know what a fool I’ve been_ **   
**_But if you kissed me now_**   
**_I know you’d fool me again_ **

He followed Mike out into the backyard. 

Hundreds of Christmas lights decorated the Sinclairs’ yard, twisted through the tree branches and hanging freely between them, lining the posts on the deck and along the roof. It was beautiful, paired with the light flurry of snow coming down on them, but Will couldn’t appreciate it. Mike was standing too close. 

He, of fucking course, looked as perfect as always. The cold that flushed his cheeks in a stupidly attractive way, the snowflakes in his curls, his pink nose, broad, snowflake-dusted shoulders covered in a dark coat. Will hated how effortlessly good he looked all the time. It made it so much harder to try and pretend everything was normal. 

Nothing was normal. He didn’t know if it would ever be again.

“What’s wrong?” Mike asked him. 

“Nothing’s wrong.” 

Mike’s arm twitched like he was going to reach out to him and thought better of it. “I’m your best friend, Will. I know when you’re not okay.” 

“Are you?” Will let the words slip out carelessly. Mike’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 

“Am I what?” 

“My best friend,” Will replied, figuring he might as well just say what he was feeling. He’d held it in for 12 long, long months.

“Of course I’m your best friend!” 

“Then why won’t you  _say_ something?!” 

Mike looked hopelessly lost. “I don’t know what that means, Will. We’re talking right now!” 

“Not about this!” Will clarified impatiently, though he was starting to get confused himself. Mike had to know what he was talking about. 

“Will, please,” Mike begged. His eyes shone with desperation, and Will realized with startling clarity that he really didn’t have any idea. He felt himself deflate. A whole year of waiting for a response to something Mike probably hadn’t even seen. 

“Last year,” Will started, the fight seeping out of him with every word. “I gave you a comic book and a drawing. Remember?” 

“Of course I remember. I have the drawing pinned up on my wall. It was awesome.” 

Will fought the rise of blood to his cheeks. Now wasn’t the time. 

“I put the gift in your mailbox. And I taped a card to it.” 

Mike’s mouth pulled down into a tight frown. “I never saw a card. When my dad gave it to me, it was just the gift.” 

His dad. 

Mike’s dad who never liked Will, for obvious reasons. Ted Wheeler probably knew about Will’s crush before even  _he_  did. 

Mike, for once, caught on. His gloved fist clenched by his side. “That fucking asshole. He must have taken it. What did it say?” 

Will was silent. He didn’t know if he was brave enough to do this now, standing right in front of Mike, with his tempting curls and his pink cheeks and his kind, brown eyes. Mike stepped forward, his hand rising to hold Will’s bicep. 

“What did it say, Will?”

“I told you about my feelings,” Will said quietly. “My... feelings for you.” 

Mike sucked in a breath. “For me.” 

“You.” Will ducked his head. Mike’s sweater had reindeer on it. God, why did everything about him have to be so cute? 

“I’m gonna fucking kill him.” 

That’s... not what he was expecting. “What?” 

“My dad,” Mike said, his jaw clenching. “I’m going to kill him. I’m 19, he has no fucking right to take  _anything_ that belongs to me, especially something so important.” 

Will felt a bolt of electricity run up his spine. “I–Important?” 

Mike stepped forward again, his boots bumping the toe of Will’s. He felt Mike’s hand under his chin, lifting his head up to look at him. Will swallowed as Mike’s eyes searched his own, and then lit up when he found whatever he was looking for. 

“Yeah,” he murmured, his head lowering ever so slowly, until their lips were  _just_ brushing. “Really fucking important.” 

Inside the Sinclair residence, everybody at the party had piled in front of the window as soon as they realized the boys had stepped out. The group broke out into cheers as they watched 13 long, desperate,  _obvious_ years of pining come to an end as Mike pressed the very first –of many– kiss to Will’s lips. 


End file.
